Back in 1942 or 43, a young fighter jock looped the Golden Gate Bridge and then proceeded to fly "down Market Street" in his goverment-issue P-38 waving to the secretaries who were watching from the skyscraper windows. His commander chewed him out royally for the transgression and I'm pretty sure he was in the doghouse for a while. But... sometimes you just have to let the ponies run, you know? He went on to accumulate 40 victories in the Pacific Theater, becoming the USA Ace of Aces. His record still stands. Richard Ira Bong.

On June 12, 1942, Bong flew very low over ("buzzed") a house in nearby San Anselmo, the home of a pilot who had just been married. He was cited and temporarily grounded for breaking flying rules, along with three other P-38 pilots who had looped around the Golden Gate Bridge on the same day. For looping the Golden Gate Bridge, for flying at low level down Market Street in San Francisco and for blowing the clothes off of an Oakland woman's clothesline, Bong was reprimanded by General George C. Kenney, commanding officer of the Fourth Air Force, who told him, "If you didn't want to fly down Market Street, I wouldn't have you in my Air Force, but you are not to do it any more and I mean what I say." Kenney later wrote: "We needed kids like this lad." In all subsequent accounts, Bong denied flying under the Golden Gate Bridge. Nevertheless, Bong was still grounded when the rest of his group was sent without him to England in July 1942.

Note the "along with three other pilots who had looped around the Golden Gate Bridge on the same day" part. That doesn't mean he did it, too, and he also denied doing it.

I also wonder how many skyscrapers there were in San Francisco in 1942. (Clue: Not many.)

First things first Wikipedia is not always credible. Wiki has serious reliability and legitimacy issues. The problem is: anyone and everyone can post ANYTHING about a given subject on that site. You do not need to be an "expert" on a given subject but you can add an opinion or modify the article to that effect. Wiki is aware of this and have taken steps to try and legitimize their website but thus far, most in the Academia world will tell you, do not cite Wiki at all (for obvious reasons).

A case of a Wiki article gone amok. Sarah Palin's commentary on Paul Revere's ride. That article on Wiki was changed eight or nine times before the editors at Wiki stepped in and shut it down. It seemed that Sarah's followers modified the article to reflect her inept and illogical opinion on that subject.

I will look at Wiki to see the footnotes. They oftentimes DO help while doing a bit of research. Just be careful when reviewing Wiki articles and ALWAYS, ALWAYS question the primary sources the article cites.

What's a skyscraper in 1942? There were 16 buildings that were 300ft or better in SF at the time, the tallest being 452. So as far as clues go, you might say "not many" or you might say "enough", depending on whether you're a wet blanket or not...

Well, if the radar shows him above a grand and he had the discretionary fly clearance, the ANG may be PO'd at him and find something to gig him on but the FAA can't. As far as going home on a commercial flight, he was bringing the plane up there to be painted so it was probably already booked anyway.

I live in Waukee (the town that this occurred over), and it flew over my house at about 5,000 feet, which is obviously not low at all. It was doing rolls, and some typical maneuvers you'd see at an airshow. I didn't think much of it, and I remember thinking to myself, "Wow! That's so cool!" But anyways, I definitely did not feel like I was in any danger. I think someone over reacted.

Yeah, its hard for people to judge. I can look up on a claer day, see a contrail and even the plane at times, come in and look on FA and see that they are at FL 30000+ and you wouldn't think they were a mile by looking.

There are no contrails around here any more. It's all about 'chemtraiils'. One of the local talk shows here must get at least one call a week complaining about planes leaving chemtrails. Conspiracy theories abound.

Next time they bring up the chemtrail BS, call the station and ask them why we are still alive if there are chemtrails being sprayed all over the place. Surely, the human race as well as all animal and plant life would be history if such was true.

We went thru all that spray business over here in Arkansas a couple of years ago with the Blackbird kill at Beebe and the fish kill near Ozark. The birds were a fireworks thing and the fish kill was natural, but it all got blamed on USAF spray planes malfunctioning out of Little Rock AFB and they managed to tie the Pine Bluff Arsenal in it too, and it's about closed down. It takes all kinds.lol

Wayne,Does your version of FA have a 6 min delay? About a year ago The airport here activated unused runway 4/22 which put the approach for 22 almost over my house. I noticed then that there was a significant delay from real time

There is a delay of some type. I am not far from KMPJ and I can be sitting on my porch and see CONTRAILS(not chem trails.lol, look at the FA map and Eastbounds are showing halfway back to KFSM, so there is undoutedly a delay of some kind in there. I was a thinkin' they said something about that here while back and that there was 2-5 minutes in there but I can't remember the reason. It may been the FAA feed they are getting.

It wouldn't surprise me if Homeland Security had some stuff in the game. I can depend on a full 6 minutes here and no military traffic at all. I'm om a loooong approach for Dover and hear lots of traffic for Andrews.

I believe the time delay is mandatory for security purposes ... to prevent aircraft from becoming the targets of the subversive, who would see the flight path and altitude, and plan their attacks accordingly. I prefer a safer environment in which to fly, so the slight delay in reported position doesn't bother me. :)

I grew up in Lancaster, CA, near Edwards AFB in the '70s. I loved to see the jets doing low fly-bys over the desert. Dang they were loud sometimes, but that just bumped up the cool factor a whole bunch. Today for me it's the sound of freedom. Let them jockeys fly!

Why is it that people with no credentials or even an idea at all about aviation much less any formal training can have such crushing "authority" to end someones flying career. That is big time bovine defecation.

You just know grandma or some family member lives in Des Moines. They probably waited excitedly all morning for him to get up there. Hate to hear about the ride back in the tube of shame, but I think you nailed it --- must have already been booked. Press just loved the drama of that though. He probably was below 1000, so it's gonna get ugly. Poor guy.

It's laughable to hear most civilians talk about military aircarft. In the mid-1980s there were public hearings in Camarillo, CA on moving the 146th Air National Guard unit from Van Nuys, CA (San Fernando Valley) to NAS Point Mugu, CA (Oxnard Plain coast). Camarillo is along Point Mugu's Runway 21 line up but is 12 miles from the base. Camarillo is where the Oxnard AFB was back in the 60's for the really "experienced" people.

One gentleman at the meeting kept making reference to the increased noise he would have to endure at his house (15 miles away) by those noisy C-130s on approach. Finally, one of the F-14 Grumman mechanics from NAS Point Mugu (Pacific Missile Testing Center back then) stood up and asked him, "Sir, do you even know what a C-130 is?" His reply, "I don't have to know anything about it other than it has 4 big, noisy jet engines on it."

Ok, turbo-props are "jet" engines, but I'd rather have C-130s flying over my house than BUFFs any day of the week. Wonder if one of those "rocket boosters" can be fitted to my car? (JATO bottles anyone?)

You know, I might have to wonder about your statement just a little. We have C130's out of LRAFB in low level training every day. You can hear them a lot earlier than you can see them and they literally shake the house and ground when they come over at about 1500'. I have been down by Bossier Cy at the North end of Barksdale and watched the BUFFS in and out and I don't think the are near as bad as the 130's. IMHO

I grew up near LRAFB, about 30 miles ENE, and the noise we had from there was the B-58 Hustlers sonic booms on a near daily basis. Wonder how she would have described that noise? That's was a real low-level window rattler.

In Iraq my hootch was about 600 yds from the center of the runway. I got so used to the F-16 flight of 2 taking off every couple of hours in full AB that eventually the only thing that woke me up was the mortar attack sirens. LOL

I had forgotton those B-58's. I was at Davis=Montanh in 1968 when they brought the 1st one in for the boneyard. It was a big deal. Thing Wing Commander and most of the staff wee out there. I had managed to get up in the tower. FSO had 2 rescue choppers hovering on the ramp

Bald Knob is NE and I grew up due south of there about 40 miles. ENE of LRAFB puts you on the White River in Des Arc. If you're ever over that way, try Dondie's White River Princess for dinner. Catfish, shrimp, crawfish, and chicken buffet. If you're near DeValls Bluff, stop in at Craig's BBQ on US70. Take the mild sauce unless you like lit rocket fuel in your mouth. lol

I lived a long time ago in a direct line with the runway at Richards-Gebaur AFB in Missouri. A-10's coming & going at all hours of the night, sometimes low enough to give you a colonoscopy. You get used to it. People would say "How do you stand these planes?" and I'd say "What planes?"

Growing up an Air Force brat, I have always lived on or near a air base. I loved watching the British Vulcan bomber that used to fly the circuit at Offutt AFB in Nebraska as well as the F-106 and F-15s at Langley AFB in Virginia. Heck, even though I haven't been in the military since 86, I still live near an Air Force Base, Dobbins in Marietta GA which shares a strip with Lockheed Martin where they made the F-22. Back in 2005, brand new F-22s were waking me up at 8:30 in the morning on what seemed like a daily basis.

I still run out of the apartment to watch planes flying around here be it the occasional F-22 now to C-5 Galaxies to Air Force One (Obama came to Atlanta last year). If I can, I have my camera with me, but I do miss watching the test pilots play around now that the F-22 program has been completed.

I lived under 22L approach to KMHR since before SAC left. You'd swear that a few of the buffs found oak twigs in the gear from the last 100' hill. Now they're bulding houses under the final approach and whining about the UPS freighters.

People every where are goofy. The Srtare had to buy all the land around BWI just South of Baltimore to make noise abatement even possible. Before it was BWI it was Friendship which was also an international airport. People would build a 3 story house 100 feet off 33L on CL and fuss about the noise 6 months later and maybe bring suite.

Back in the late 80s early 90s, people who moved into a golf community/country club development that a builder built right next to Patrick Henry Airport in Newport News, VA complained when the airport wanted to build new maintenance hangers on the east side of 7/22. The airport has been there since the 40s compared to the few short years of that development. My thought has always been, if you move into a home next to an airport or in the flight path, you have no room to complain.

Still, local authorities who allow or rather approve permits for developers to build near military bases or airports are ultimately to blame, especially if an accident were to happen. As it is, the city of Virginia Beach is starting to buy up the homes around NAS Oceana to help ease encroachment around the base (had been on the BRAC chopping block at one time) and to help ease the possibility of a similar accident with the Marine F/A 18 that crashed trying to land at Mirimar MCAS outside of San Diego.

Lame story. I was hoping to see video of the jet flying low and we get a woman all too happy for her 2 minutes of fame and expert analysis. I used to work in the Florida Capitol and the Florida Air National Guard would do the fly-bys for special events. We would all go to the 22nd floor which has a glass ceiling and enjoy the low fly-bys.Thank goodness we have these talented and brave pilots to protect our country.

Yeah, it is a lame story. As it was reported and sensationalized, he will probably get tore up for it though. They talked about him going home on a commercial flight like it was punishment or something, but failed to note he was bringing the bird in for paint. That flight was probably already booked. If no more is said and if he was above minimums, from a reg. standpoint he'll be OK but depending on his superiors, he may or may not get a gig of some type.

as long as he wasn't drunk, i don't have a problem with him wringing-out the F-15.i live very close to IAH's 2 north-south runway's, and we get F-16's and T-38's buzzing-by,at low altitudes, constantly. 10 o'clock in the morning is not a "wake-up call" time.

Well, it's kinda like the Railroads. They built most towns they pass thru, but now the freight trains are becoming an inconvenience and Lord help if you near the tracks. A railfan would stand on the front porch looking at engine type and type of train, and a next door neighbor that bought his house last week couldn't see those rails and trains and if he did, thought they were just going to up and move on account of he lived there now.lol

those idiot people should run outside and throw their arms up in thanks.....whoever the dumbasses are that reported that pilot should be nominated to carry a rifle and walk point in the next engagement.

I love it when a military pilot does a low alt, high speed very loud flyby of my house. Id gladly sacrifice my windows yet still fell i haven't done enough.

If the fighter jocks want to do aerobatics, they need to do it in the proper airspace, not over residential areas. Having taken many a noise complaint for B-52 and KC-135 pilots breaking the rules, I know the bad public relations caused by pilots breaking the rules isn't worth it and can even lead to legal problems for the pilot's unit. No excuse for the pilot who did this, and good that he got a ride home on a commercial flight to give him time to think about what he did. Those who are saying "I wish he did it over my house" surely don't have young children or livestock or property that can be damaged and lost when a jet aircraft blasts the skies.

Dave, I have to disagree. This is not about "fighter jocks" or "public relations". This is about a mass communications major, a dumbed down degree where you don't have to take math 101, looking for a story, and Donna Sue wanting to be on TV. It worked. They went viral on YouTube.

Then comes the bureaucracy. They take names, posture, pose and try to nail down their own deck plank. Let's face it, it is expensive and unnecessary baggage.

My graditude to our military pilots, may they break some windows, scatter some cows, wake us up, complete the mission, and please, please come home. And to the bureaucrary, shove it.

Mack, I call it BNN247, Breathless News Network every hour, every day, all year long. the need to have everything on the air as 'breaking news'. I think it comes from the 'if it bleeds, it leads' on a slow news day that someone posts on Mew-tube.